Pier Giorgio FRASSATI

Feast: July 4 Beatification: May 20, 1990 Veneration: October 23, 1987 Some people have called Pier, or Pedro, Frassati a saint for today's youth. He was likeable and athletic. He liked to climb mountains, ride horses, and ski with his many friends. He loved to laugh and was famous for his jokes. He loved life and lived it fully.

Pier was born in Turin, Italy in 1901. His mother was an artist and his father founded and ran the Italian newspaper La Stampa. He went to daily mass to receive the Eucharist and also prayed the rosary. He never hesitated to share his faith with others.

Pier had great concern for the poor, even as a child. One day a needy mother with a young son came to the Frassati house to ask for food. Pier noticed that the boy was barefoot. He took off his own shoes and gave them to the boy, and then he and his mother fed the family. Pier used the money he received as a gift for his graduation to rent a room for a woman who had been evicted from her apartment because she had no money. He gave his money to the poor, and sometimes chose to walk home from school because he had given his money for the bus or train to someone in need.

As a young man he joined the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and spent many hours in activities that helped the poor and sick. As a mine engineer, he took great care of the rights of miners. He wanted them to have fair working conditions and fair wages.

On turning 24, Pier became seriously ill with polio. Some people said that he contracted this disease by caring for the people of the poor neighborhoods of Turin, but Pier saw Jesus in the people whom he served. In his last days, he whispered to his family and friends who had gathered around his sickbed the names of people who still needed assistance. He died on July 4, 1925.

Pier was declared "Blessed" in 1990 by Pope John Paul II who called him a "man of the Beatitudes" and a "joyful apostle of Christ." Many people were surprised that the Vatican created an official portrait for his beatification that showed him outdoors, leaning on an ice peak, with one foot on a rock, in honor of his youthful vitality and passion for the mountains.

Questions 1. Do you know the Saint’s name for this week? 2.. When was it born and where? 3. When is the feast day of Saint Peter Giorgio Frassati? 4. How would you describe the personality of Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati? 5. Did he have any hobbies? List them. 6. Who did he help from a very young age? 7. Who did he help as a young man? 8. What did Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati die of? 9. John Paul II gave him two names, what are the two names?